1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relates to grid computing. More particularly, embodiments of the present invention relate to a grid computing system for managing utility service content delivered to devices coupled to the grid computing system.
2. Related Art
A storage unit is utilized to store objects (e.g., applications and data files). Examples of storage units include a magnetic disk drive, CD-ROM drive, an optical drive, a floppy disk drive, a hard disk drive, a magnetic tape drive, a RAM unit, a ROM unit, a PROM unit, an EPROM unit, a flash unit, and any other drive/unit on which objects may be stored. Due to technology advances, the size of the storage unit has been reduced while increasing its storage capacity.
Several factors are considered in deciding what storage unit to incorporate into a device (e.g., handheld device, stand-alone device, desktop device, etc.). One factor is the size of the device. To reduce the size of the device, storage units having smaller sizes are utilized. Another factor is storage capacity. If the device supports multiple applications and functionalities, the storage capacity of the storage unit has to be sufficiently large to accommodate these multiple applications and functionalities. Weight of the device is another factor. If the device is intended to be a handheld device, a storage unit having a less weight is utilized.
Although the factors described above (e.g., size, storage capacity, and weight) are important, cost of the device may be the most influential factor. Typically, smaller size, greater storage capacity, and less weight increase the cost of the device. The various examples of storage units given above represent different storage technologies. Each storage technology has a corresponding cost affected by size, storage capacity, and weight. Typically, the ideal storage unit having the ideal size, ideal storage capacity, the ideal weight, and the ideal cost for the device is not available. Thus, size, storage capacity, and weight are compromised to achieve the target cost.
Devices are used for various utility services, such as downloading media files for play on the device. However, in order to keep the size, weight, and cost of the device low, a typical device has significantly less storage for holding media files than many users desire. Furthermore, a typical user may own several devices that are able to play media content. However, the media content must be downloaded and stored individually on each device. Furthermore, some devices do not have efficient ways of managing the media content such that a user may intelligently query the stored information.